DEC 11, 2016 — JAN 24, 2017

Route 1 (eventually) and SHRIMP!

We left LA, nursing minor hangovers thanks to Christina, and headed towards the coast with Monterey, CA the next destination.

The weather was patchy – in places sunny with intermittent heavy downpours – as we drove along Route 101 (the highway version of Route 1). We took a short-cut at Santa Barbara through a mountain pass, and spotted two separate wrecks, one on each side of the road, within a quarter mile of each other!

The plan was to take Route 101 to San Luis Obispo before taking Route 1 through Morro Bay and up to Monterey. This part of the journey went as planned, and we pulled into Morro Bay for a sneaky feed of fish and chips from a hole-in-the-wall place down at the waterfront. It was halibut. Holy crap how good is halibut!

After the stop, we started driving up towards Big Sur, but quickly encountered signs saying that the road was closed due to landslides! So much for Route 1! We were back on the 101 and continued the drive into Monterey, where we checked in and thought about dinner.

Where to eat in Monterey? How about the original Bubba Gump Shrimp Company? Yeah, exactly!

Monterey was the first of the now roughly 40 restaurants mostly in the states (you’d have thought somewhere in the South, where Bubba Gump “operated” in Forrest Gump, but Viacom, being a Californian company, perhaps wanted somewhere a little closer (so they could go!) and with a bit more foot traffic.

The restaurant was celebrating its 20th birthday, so I picked up a souvenir glass, as well as a few photos of some of the memorabilia – as a big fan of the movie, this was awesome! The shrimp (Sara had fish tacos) was delicious – I was not disappointed!

The next morning drove Route 1 south to Big Sur, taking in the truly impressive scenery, and seeing if we could spot New Zealand. Obviously, we couldn’t. We headed back to Monterey to grab a coffee before hitting the road north again, and took a few snaps in daylight!

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After that, it was on the road to Napa (apparently Sara wanted to go here, no idea why ;-P), north of San Francisco, meaning we drove through the city and over the Golden Gate bridge, which is just as impressive as you’d think.